This invention relates generally to communication systems and, more particularly, to transaction processing systems.
Communications systems with customer contact centers are known. Such systems are typically used as a means of distributing customer contacts, such as telephone calls, among a group of agents of an organization. As customer contacts are made with customers utilizing a communications network, such as a public switched telephone network (PSTN), the communications system directs the customer contacts to its agents based upon some algorithm. For example, a communications system such as an automatic call distributor (ACD), a private branch exchange (PBX), or a central office exchange service (Centrex) may recognize a call target based upon an identity of an incoming trunk line and route the call accordingly.
Businesses, service organizations, and other entities may use customer contact centers to process telephone calls, email messages and voice mail contacts for marketing, sales, product support, and other customer service functions. Agents of the customer contact center may communicate with a customer to handle inquiries, process billing orders, and perform research. In essence, the agents provide the wide array of services that the companies that use them require. Thus, the effectiveness and efficiency of a customer contact center may depend on agent communications.
However, the present format is limited. Currently, an agent is limited in the ways that the agent may contact a customer using communication other than the telephone. For example, when an agent contacts a customer using the telephone, a predictive dialing system may aid the agent in contacting the customer. The predictive dialing system performs the mechanical tasks of establishing contact with the customer and assigning the call to an available agent. If, however, the agent wishes to contact a customer using data applications, e.g. chat, the agent is unable to initiate contact with the customer without first having the customer contact the agent. For example, a customer may send an email to the agent requesting that the agent chat via the Internet with the customer at 1:00 pm. After the initial email communication, the agent may then be able to set up an Internet chat communication at 1:00 pm. For communicating with many customers, the current format is inefficient and ineffective. The current format requires the agent to spend more time trying to establish contact with a customer than actually communicating with the customer using a data application. Accordingly, a need exists for a system and method for predictive customer contacts.